Contact: Richard P. Gulla
781-434-7101
rgulla@mms.org
Waltham, Mass. - Jan. 23 - Depression is a chronic mental illness affecting some 25 million Americans annually, according to the National Alliance on Mental Illness. It touches all ages, and all racial, ethnic, social, and economic groups, and has a substantial impact on patients and health care delivery: it is a leading cause of disability for those 15-44 years old and cost upwards of $80 billion annually in lost productivity and health care services. Yet to many people, this illness is mysterious and misunderstood.
To create more understanding about this often-stigmatizing condition, the Massachusetts Medical Society takes a closer look at depression in the February edition of Physician Focus, the Society's monthly patient education television program broadcast by public access stations across Massachusetts.
Understanding Depression serves as a basic introduction to the topic, examining its causes, how it's diagnosed, its links to other medical conditions, and how the condition is treated.
The program features Marie Hobart, M.D., a board-certified psychiatrist and the chief medical officer of Community Healthlink in Worcester, part of UMass Memorial Health Care that provides psychiatric, mental health, and substance abuse services for families and individual patients in Central Massachusetts. Hosting the program is John Fromson, M.D., a board-certified psychiatrist and associate director of graduate medical education at Massachusetts General Hospital.
Physician Focus is a noncommercial production of the Massachusetts Medical Society and Hopkinton (Mass.) Community Access Television, HCAM-TV. Now in its ninth year, the monthly half-hour program brings viewers health and medical information on timely topics from physicians and other healthcare experts. Distributed as a public service, the program reaches some 271 communities in Massachusetts each month through the courtesy of public access television stations. For details on the program, visit the home page at www.physicianfocus.org.
The Massachusetts Medical Society, with more than 24,000 physicians and student members, is dedicated to educating and advocating for the patients and physicians of Massachusetts. The Society publishes The New England Journal of Medicine, one of the world's leading medical journals; the Journal Watch family of professional newsletters covering 11 specialties; and AIDS Clinical Care. The Society is also a leader in continuing medical education for health care professionals throughout Massachusetts, conducting a variety of medical education programs for physicians and health care professionals. Founded in 1781, MMS is the oldest continuously operating medical society in the country. For more information, visit www.massmed.org.
HCAM-TV was founded April 1, 2004 by the Board of Selectmen of the Town of Hopkinton as a nonprofit corporation to manage local access to cable broadcast facilities. For information on HCAM, visit http://www.hcam.tv
